EU's Digital Strategy
Find out all about Europe's "Digital Decade”
The European Digital Decade
Between 2020 and 2021, the European Union has worked to lay the foundations for Europe's digital transformation during the decade 2020 - 2030.
In March 2021 the European Commission presented a vision and pathway strategy for Europe's digital transformation from now to 2030. A "Digital Compass", that translates the EU's digital transformation ambitions into concrete targets to be achieved, within four cardinal points:
Digitally skilled citizens and highly skilled digital professionals
Digital skills will be essential to strengthen our collective resilience as a society. Basic digital skills for all citizens and the opportunity to acquire new specialised digital skills for workers are a prerequisite for active participation in the Digital Decade, as spelled out in the European Skills Agenda. The targets set by the Digital Compass to 2030 in this area are as follows:
- ICT skills: 20 million + gender convergence
- Basic digital skills: minimum 80% of the population
Sustainable digital infrastructures that are secure and efficient
Europe will only achieve digital leadership by building on a sustainable digital infrastructure in connectivity, microelectronics, and the ability to process large amounts of data, as they act as enablers of other technological developments and support the competitive advantage of our industry. Significant investments are needed in all these areas which require coordination to achieve European scale. To achieve this, the Digital Compass sets the following targets for 2030:
- Connectivity: Gigabit for everyone, 5G everywhere
- Cutting-edge semiconductors: doubling the EU's share of global production
- Data: edge and cloud: 10 000 highly secure, climate-neutral border nodes
- Computing: first computer with quantum acceleration
Digital transformation of businesses
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift towards digital technologies has become essential for many businesses. In 2030, rather than mere enablers, digital technologies, including 5G, the internet of things, near-user computing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and augmented reality will be at the heart of new products, new manufacturing processes and new business models based on a fair exchange of data in the data economy. It is therefore essential to drive the digital transformation of companies and ensure a fair and competitive digital economy. In this context, the Digital Compass sets the following objectives:
- Technology uptake: use of cloud, AI, and big data by 75% of EU businesses.
- Innovators: increase of growing start-ups and funding to double unicorns in the EU
- Late adopters: over 90% of SMEs reach at least a basic level of digital intensity
Digitisation of public services
By 2030, the EU's goal is to ensure that democratic life and online public services are fully accessible to all, including people with disabilities, and benefit from a top-quality digital environment offering user-friendly, efficient, and personalised services and tools with high levels of security and privacy. To this end, the Digital Compass proposes the following objectives:
- Key public services: 100 % online
- e-Health: 100 % of citizens have access to medical records
- Data: edge and cloud: 10 000 highly secure, climate-neutral border nodes
- Digital Identity: 80% of citizens use digital identification
The Path to 2030
The Path to the Digital Decade is the Commission's proposal to create a governance framework to enable the Digital Decade goals to be achieved by 2030. This framework is based on a cooperation mechanism involving the Commission and the Member States. The Commission will develop projected EU trajectories for each target, with Member States being responsible for proposing national strategic roadmaps containing measures to achieve these targets.
News
Access here the news and developments of the European digital transformation agenda, categorised around the objectives of skills acquisition; building secure and sustainable digital infrastructures; digital transformation of enterprises and digitisation of public services.
